Off With It's Head!

Monday came.  While most people were recovering from the storm, I was anxiously awaiting my stud remover.  Such an exciting life I lead.  I got home to the small package sitting on my porch.  I tore into it knowing I had about 2 hours.  Emptying out the box, I noticed almost instantly there were no directions.  Hmmmm.  I grabbed my tools and left for the boat.

Excited to actually get the head off and see what's inside, I put the stud remover on and tightened it up.  Clearly the tool is designed to work on studs that aren't rusted into the engine.  I quickly discovered after 4 attempts that you really need to bear down on the thing to get it to grab tight enough to pull the stud out.  On my fifth try, I really beared down on it.  Tightening it as much as possible with my longest wrench.  It unscrewed just like the other ones, except this time, the stud came out.  Completely shocked and excited, I continued to remove another 8 until I was finally left with the three studs it wouldn't work on.  I figured I'd try to lift the head off anyway and worry about the other three studs later.  Prying gently with my screwdriver, it unsealed and lifted.  Working me way around, I was able to lift the head off completely.
Then engine looked worse inside than it did out.  This will be a tough cleaning job to say the least.  I brought the head and left for the night.
The next day, I did a web search on how to clean engine parts.  Everything from Muriatic Acid (witch causes the parts to start rusting immediately) to easy off oven cleaner.  I decided to go directly to a professional.  I contacted Don Moyer at Moyer Marine to ask him how to clean it.  In a few hours I got an email response telling me to use "Gunk" for the metal and a carburetor cleaner with a wire brush for the pistons, etc.  We'll see if that works.  I'm not convinced it will be enough.  The horrible state of affairs inside the engine does explain why I was getting no compression when it was turning, and why it eventually stopped turning.

I stopped at the auto store on my way home and got all the cleaning supplies recommended.  Thursday night, I will be removing the manifold, and the fueal pump and carburetor after that.  I'm looking forward to a long warm weekend of scrubbing engine parts and starting the rebuild process.  Hopefully I'll be able to get the block off the engine on Monday if not before and start getting that cleaned up.  I'm not sure how heavy it will be once the components are off of it, but I'd like to get it clean and start reassembling soon.